This invention relates to a down-line transcription system used by attorneys for reviewing real-time transcription during a proceeding such as a trial or deposition; and, more particularly, it relates to a method and apparatus for interactively preparing an outline for use during such a proceeding based on case evidence and case law which may be locally or remotely located.
As is well known, legal proceedings such as a deposition or trial involve the participation of, among others, an examining attorney who asks questions and a witness who must answer (“testify”) while under oath. To prepare for such proceedings, the examining attorney must review the applicable case law and the related case evidence. The attorney also consults experts, clients and other associate attorneys regarding specific issues of law and fact as proves necessary. During his investigation process the attorney takes notes, and makes copies of documents and legal cases regarding everything at issue. Based on these materials, the attorney attempts to develop a strategy, constructs an outline of possible lines of inquiry, drafts potential questions for the witness and organizes relevant documentary evidence for use as exhibits for the proceeding. During the entire process, the examining attorney attempts to anticipate all of the legal issues that might arise.
The entire preparation process often proves to be very time consuming and cyclical in nature. Every important fact uncovered leads to a new case law search. Similarly, every new legal issue leads to a need for additional facts that are found by conducting a case evidence search or are found by directly examining a witness. Because of this, lead attorneys on a case must be organized and skilled at memory recall.
The defending attorney must also attempt to understand the factual and legal issues in the case via case law and case evidence searching and through conversations with the client, expert witnesses, other attorneys and, most importantly, the witness to be deposed. During the entire process, the defending attorney's goal is to anticipate the strengths and weaknesses of the case and the factual evidence which may arise in the proceeding. The defending attorney must be well versed in all categories of the facts and law which might arise so as to be able to properly defend the witness. The defending attorney takes notes during his pre-investigation process to prepare the witness for the proceeding.
However, neither the examining attorney nor the defending attorney can anticipate everything. Typically, in the midst of a proceeding, the witness reveals something unexpected to one or both attorneys. The revelation could involve a new area of law which the attorneys know little if anything about. More often, the revelation suggests an unknown variant in a known category of law. The revelation also creates a need for additional documents for use during the proceeding to pursue the new issue. In all such situations, additional searching is needed. However, during the proceeding, because the attorneys do not have the luxury of time, outlining, legal researching, and factual evidence retrieval prove to be an impossibility.
Additionally, the examining attorney generally takes notes (1) on a legal pad of paper, (2) directly on copies of potentially relevant documents identified for use in the deposition, and (3) on Post-it® brand notes which are associated with the documents and other materials. During the proceeding, the attorney attempts to recreate the associations of the notes, the identified documents and draft questions with legal inquiries into the different categories of law. Because of disorganization, the attorney is often unable to use a great deal of the prepared information.
In complex litigation, the problems facing the attorneys are compounded. Because the preparation process becomes a very time consuming task, the lead examining (and defending) attorney delegates the task to an associate attorney on the case. The associate attorney, who often has lesser knowledge of the facts and law at issue, is faced with the task of retrieving the important case law and evidence which will be relevant in the upcoming proceeding. Because of lesser knowledge and inexperience, the associate attorney either over prepares or else complicates the matter by not culling out the appropriate law or facts. In addition, because the associate attorney must brief the lead attorney during a relatively short time period before the proceeding, the lead attorney cannot grasp all of what is attempted to be conveyed. Similarly, the associate attorney may convey a misconstrued understanding of the law and the evidence because of inexperience. Either way, the lead attorney often does not find out all he needs until the proceeding is underway.
In the midst of the proceeding, the examining attorney is also confronted with the problem of recalling the testimony of former witnesses regarding the same subject matter now being addressed. If recalled, the examining attorney may use the prior testimony to his advantage. Also, after the deposition, the attorney is faced with the problem of reorganizing the materials in some type of saveable form for later use when a similar witness is deposed.
Hence, it would be highly desirable to solve the foregoing variety of problems enumerated in preparing for legal proceedings such as a deposition or trial by guiding the attorney in the preparation process while associating all notes, documents and law into a workable format which requires minimal attorney interaction during the proceeding.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus having interactive outlining capabilities based on tailorable, default outlines that provide immediate access to current case law, pre-typed tailorable and default questions while providing for association of case and witness specific notes, testimony, and other case evidence.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for selecting a pre-typed outline based on categories or subcategories of law, by providing for interactive queries based on specific facts and law at issue in a given lawsuit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for interactively selecting a pre-typed outline based on categories or subcategories of law which contains tailored potential questions that may be further tailored for managing depositions, trial and case evidence, law and attorney work product.